Unbelievable

Agree, but I'm only expecting one or two genuine first teamers because of the January spend. Yep, Sissoko and Gouffran are essentially summer signings brought forward apparently, even though we could have done with them last summer. Looking at it possitively, the January players have half a season under their belt now so should be able to hit the ground running.

You're looking at the best part of 40m there. Never going to happen. In fact, wouldn't surprise me to see us not get in a new striker again if we don't believe we're getting value for money.

As expected then: Pardew stays and the NO sages write off next season before pre season has even begun.

If you want to compare in relation to squad strength I would say last season he was easily the best manager since SBR. This season goes down as a major disappointment of course, but overall he hasn't done worse for us than the likes of Sounness and Joe f***ing Kinnear, and that's only going back a decade, let alone 45 years...

I've only been following since 2004 and I've seen much worse tbh

Worst manager since you started following Newcastle? Can't have been that long then?

He knew this was coming. I expect him to sign within the next few days.

A Spurs fan said it? Must be true then.

heavy as f***, this not fun Aye. Horrible everytime you see the footage.

It's easy to miss the point when Interpolic decides what the point is, even though "the point" is completely theoretical. Sorry for busting your bubble if you naively believed we were in for a manager change. You did miss the point, I was wondering why HF hated the manager yet didn't want him sacked and you came storming in with a water pistol going on about how he wouldn't be sacked anyway. Point or "main issue"?

We'll continue going around in circles here, I've explained what I'm getting at. I suppose the main issue at hand is surrounding the potential next appointment and I've been over why I don't think we'd get Dave Bassett in next numerous times. We haven't made a managerial appointment in 2 and a half years and so much else has changed since then, a lot of it for the better. Isn't the main issue that Ashley will simply not sack Pardew so soon after handing him an eight year contract and telling the world of this revolutionary new approach to football club ownership where stability in management brings success on the pitch? Nope not really, not when we're debating whether we'd like to see Pardew sacked or not. If you think Happy Face is wasting his time by pointing out fallacies in overly harsh or (factually) unfounded criticism directed at Pardew, then what the hell are you doing debating whether you'd like to see Pardew sacked or not, knowing full well it won't happen? Christ almighty, it's such a simple point I have no idea how you can't grasp it. We were talking about why HF isn't that fussed on seeing Pardew sacked despite the fact he doesn't rate him, not how likely it is he'll be sacked. You're arguing with people for the sake of arguing with people. Oh, don't worry, I understand your "point" completely. I just find it ironic in the extreme that you would point out when you feel other posters are wasting their time whilst crusading non stop against Pardew, knowing full well there is absolutely no point. I mean, 99,9% of the posters of this board want him gone, so who are you trying to convince? Shame the man in control doesn't.

It's easy to miss the point when Interpolic decides what the point is, even though "the point" is completely theoretical. Sorry for busting your bubble if you naively believed we were in for a manager change.

We'll continue going around in circles here, I've explained what I'm getting at. I suppose the main issue at hand is surrounding the potential next appointment and I've been over why I don't think we'd get Dave Bassett in next numerous times. We haven't made a managerial appointment in 2 and a half years and so much else has changed since then, a lot of it for the better. Isn't the main issue that Ashley will simply not sack Pardew so soon after handing him an eight year contract and telling the world of this revolutionary new approach to football club ownership where stability in management brings success on the pitch? No doubt he doesn't want to sack Pardew but if the value of his assets keeps diminishing because the manager makes good players look ordinary then do you really think Ashley will want to keep flogging a dead horse? Not infinitely of course, but I'm convinced he'll be here for the start of next season.

We'll continue going around in circles here, I've explained what I'm getting at. I suppose the main issue at hand is surrounding the potential next appointment and I've been over why I don't think we'd get Dave Bassett in next numerous times. We haven't made a managerial appointment in 2 and a half years and so much else has changed since then, a lot of it for the better. Isn't the main issue that Ashley will simply not sack Pardew so soon after handing him an eight year contract and telling the world of this revolutionary new approach to football club ownership where stability in management brings success on the pitch? Nope not really, not when we're debating whether we'd like to see Pardew sacked or not. If you think Happy Face is wasting his time by pointing out fallacies in overly harsh or (factually) unfounded criticism directed at Pardew, then what the hell are you doing debating whether you'd like to see Pardew sacked or not, knowing full well it won't happen?

We'll continue going around in circles here, I've explained what I'm getting at. I suppose the main issue at hand is surrounding the potential next appointment and I've been over why I don't think we'd get Dave Bassett in next numerous times. We haven't made a managerial appointment in 2 and a half years and so much else has changed since then, a lot of it for the better. Isn't the main issue that Ashley will simply not sack Pardew so soon after handing him an eight year contract and telling the world of this revolutionary new approach to football club ownership where stability in management brings success on the pitch?

He did say he won't give anything away when asked if he's staying. Unless we have already been in touch with him or his agent, I take that to mean he's in advanced talks with West Ham, and it's probably mainly a matter of West Ham agreeing a deal with Liverpool. Given what the question was, if that was the case I don't know why his answer wouldn't have just been 'yeah'. Not entirely up to him whether West Ham and Liverpool can agree a deal is it?

He did say he won't give anything away when asked if he's staying. Unless we have already been in touch with him or his agent, I take that to mean he's in advanced talks with West Ham, and it's probably mainly a matter of West Ham agreeing a deal with Liverpool.

Reading between the lines of his post match interview on MOTD, he's staying at West Ham.

Tbf he'd have had another 5 or 6 but for incorrect linesmen decisions. Nah, most of those calls were correct if very close.

Went from 13 in 14 last season to 13 in 47 this. Needs to do much better next season.

So make it dependent on the final league position rather than a one game lottery, a more or less meaningless one for the players as well, in which the chances of him actually having to pay out are pretty damn slim. I think the initiative is PR related, but I still can't figure out why or how this benefits him or us.

This discussion about if 4k can be considered life changing..

I don't understand it... What is meant by non-football staff in this context? Is it the people who work for the non-footballing side of the club (presumably), or the coaching and management staff? If the former, how do they influence the match result in any way, shape or form. Is this some sort of ploy to make the match relevant for the playing (or football related) staff in that if they fail to beat Arsenal they cost the club's "normal" employees thousands of pounds each? Either way, what a strange thing to do.

That's my view as well. Yep agree with this Well you're all mental. On his day, he's unplayable. If we got rid, we'd soon regret it IMO. He's been unplayable only a handful of times in his 2 seasons here. He's a quality player. And this is the club that trusts Alan Pardew to get us out of Alan Pardew's mess, and replaced Andy Carroll with Demba Ba to then want to replace Demba Ba with Andy Carroll. I don't trust us to replace him properly, so I'd rather he didn't go. I'm not saying I want him away I just think there's a huge amount of hype around a player who doesn't live up to that hype a lot of the time. Tactics or no tactics top players enforce themselves on matches, just look at the way Colo made an impact coming back into defence. Cabaye has fantastic skill and ability but has he really done enough this season when we've needed him, I'm not sure he has. That said pretty much all our players have underperformed this season so he's not alone. Cabaye made a huge impact on his return from injury. I'd say the new players had a bigger impact tbh. Certainly not all of them. Didn't Cabaye score the winner in his first two games after his return?